West Palm `Festival Marketplace` Studied

November 12, 1985|By Robert McClure, Staff Writer

WEST PALM BEACH — A ``festival marketplace`` downtown would attract sales of about $26 million a year and would be most successful if accompanied by a convention center, a newly completed market analysis shows.

But the development of ``Flaglerplace`` between Flagler Drive and the east end of Clematis Street would mean tearing down the downtown library and possibly realigning some downtown streets, the report shows.

The analysis of the concept of specialty shops and restaurants, delivered to a group of business people and citizens Friday, calls the 3.25-acre Flagler Park site ``world class`` for such a development.

City Commissioner Rick Reikenis said Monday that he and other members of a committee working on the idea are considering two basic designs:

(BU) A cluster of small retail shops and cafes, along with plazas and other open spaces, that would be designed specifically to serve West Palm Beach residents.

(BU) A similar development that would also include a hotel, an office building and possibly a performing arts center, aquarium or some other drawing card to attract people from the entire region, including tourists who visit the Orlando area.

``We can do something nice and comfortable and probably do OK and take care of West Palm Beach, or we can make a big splash and try to reinforce our tourist industry,`` Reikenis said.

Jim Green, a West Palm Beach lawyer and member of the committee working on the idea, said the basic shopping center could be built first, and the drawing card added later.

``The big question is, should it be done one phase at a time or should it be sort of a big bang,`` Green said. ``Plan A would not necessarily preclude a project down the road along the lines of Plan B.``

The market analysis was put together by Zuchelli, Hunter & Associates, an Annapolis, Md., economic analysis firm that also was involved in the development of Harborplace, a Baltimore waterside commercial development that draws millions of visitors each year.

The analysis indicates a West Palm Beach ``festive marketplace`` would complement the more than 824,000 square feet in recently completed ``class-A`` office space. The report predicts that employment in the downtown area will grow from 7,800 in 1980 to more than 26,000 by 1994.

``It will give office workers a place to stay downtown after 5 o`clock,`` Reikenis said.

``I`m not surprised at what came out of the market analysis because of SunFest,`` the annual arts and music festival downtown, Reikenis said. ``SunFest shows that people will come downtown if there`s something to do.``

West Palm Beach city officials paid $15,000 of the $20,000 cost of the study. The other $5,000 came from the Downtown Development Authority.